Together again!

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute." ~Josh Billings

I am sorry but this week is going to be short. No time!!!! AHHHHH

    Things are good here. Transfer calls were on Sunday. No changes for me but our zone is getting all jumbled up. We have a bunch of missionaries leaving and a bunch coming in. That means we have a lot of work on our hands on Thursday. Gotta get everyone ready to take the transfer van. And we have to make sure everything is going smoothly.

    We are having a whole 5th Sunday devoted to missionary work next Sunday! Our ward is the best. They try to help us so much. All the talks and lessons are about missionary work and we are teaching the combined lesson for the 3rd hour. I have gained more trust with this ward than anywhere else. I love it here! With all the trust we are really making things start to roll.

    Me and my comp are good. Trying to stay warm. But good none the less............

     I LOVE THE WORK!!!!!

    Thank you everyone for all the e-mails! I am sorry but i got a bunch so by the time i got done reading them and doing all the stuff a ZL had to do I can only send this E-mail to everyone.

     I LOVE  y'all! Glad to hear from you. Keep on keeping on.

  P.S.....

    The lesson learned this week was a hard one for me. I have always had some reply to whatever is said to me. But this week i tried something new after i read this quote...

            "Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."  

~Josh Billings

    I don't know who the guy is but either way the quote is good. And well i just shut my mouth. Even when i knew i had the right come back.... Ha it really helped. Y'all should give it a shot.

BE HUMBLE, DON'T STUMBLE 01/17/2012

Hello to all!   It was freezing the last 2 days. Yesterday it was 44 for the high and 22 for the low! BRRRR But today the high is 68! I don't get it. It is soooo crazy. Hot Cold Rain Snow Sunny Overcast.... You never know out here.

I don't have the heart to tell him the forecast is for colder temps.... But. No snow yet!

   Well the house doesn't look like the house any more. What is this strange place i will be coming home to? I guess that the whole point though. I cant believe the carpet is gone....  That's what the Rogers home was known for! oh well. I really miss doing all of that. Yesterday for p-day i fixed the water cooler we have. You know a water cooler like the ones @ office places. I had to do something with my hands. I had to work on SOMETHING. Took it apart and put it all back together. It worked for a few min. Then sadly another part broke. I guess it will just stay broken forever. Something cool though. Our water cooler isn't a water cooler any more. It is a Gatorade cooler now!!! HA we took Gatorade powder and mix it in the 5 gallon jug. Then put it on top. You know, ever little kids dream: Cool aid in the drinking fountain. But for us it's Gatorade in the water cooler! 

   Awesome. I think it is cool that you had it @ the house. That way it is more personal. I bet it was great. That is a really cool experience to have in the new "Smith Home" Bummed i missed it. But not bummed i am not home. Glad to be out here and working.

   Elder Dransfield is great. We are totally different but because we have the same purpose we work really well together. We are the "Fix-It" missionaries. He fixes all the computer stuff and i do the stuff like cars or home improvements. It has really helped us gain some trust with the ward. The ward is so awesome! They would do anything for us. The want to do whatever it takes to help the work move forward.

   We are restricted with miles not gas. We can go 2,100 miles a month. Seems like a lot but you have to take in account that we drive all day. Because the church is smaller out here our areas are HUGE! I measured it out yesterday. Our stake is 138 miles from top to bottom and about 90 miles across.... I think our stake back home would fit into one of the wards out here. A trip to the bottom area is 180 miles round trip. And the trip to Richmond is 260 miles round trip.... Our miles go fast. And no we hardly get on the bikes. 2 or 3 days out of the month.

   As for eating. We are just trying to eat better. But that is hard on the time schedule we have. I am trying to make stuff and put it in the fridge on freezer so i can grab it quickly when the time comes. All my other areas we have had Lunch but now it is more like we have 20 min to get a bite to eat, grab our gear, go to the bathroom, and hit the road. In the scriptures Christ take the Apostles to a Desert Place to rest because they didn't even have time to eat. It was the new Testament style of P-Day! HAHAHA Ha I cherish P-Day a lot more now. Mark 6:30-32

   Well things are going good. Still trying to make up for all the time we lost over the holidays. Luke 9:36 I feel like it is time to make up for the down slope of missionary work over the holidays. STUDY LESSON LESSON TRACK TEACH LESSON SLEEP Rinse and repeat!  

   Love Y'all    and i miss you a bunch. Keep on keeping on.   P.S. this old guy we are teaching gave me the best saying... " Be humble, Don't stumble"

A TESTIMONY, FASTING, AND PRAYER 1/9/2012

Well the new year is here and it is starting to look up. I have a Testimony of fasting and prayer. They work.... Trust me.... All the things that me and my comp fasted and prayed for happened. And Heavenly Father didn't make us wait a month or a week or even a day. It all happened on Sunday. We had a less active member come to church. We found a new investigator and set him and his friend for baptism! It was amazing. I was blown away to see the blessings and how fast God gave them to us!

   The week went great. We had Zone Leader Council (a meeting in Richmond where pres tells us how we can do better and how we can help the zone). Then we went on an exchange with the assistants to the pres. (we switched companions for 24 hours and learned for each other) Then we held our Chesapeake Zone meeting! ( we teach things to our Zone and set goals and all kinds of stuff). Meeting meeting meeting.... My brain has been on overload but everything went well.

   I am not sure if i told you. But Elder McElhany is in the same District as i am. He is the one who came out the same day as me. And is from Queen Creek. It is cool to see him a lot. I have been so tired from all the running around.  I have driven like 400-500 miles this week! uggg Now it is time to get out and work.

   It has been COLD lately, and it has been warm lately too. Out here is can be 67 one day then 44 the next.... Today it is raining. The weather never ceases to amaze me.

   We set a goal to not eat as much junk food. We had 3 boxes of candy and cookies and fudge and brownies and chips and popcorn and all kinds of other stuff (  ) sitting on our counter from the holidays. We looked at it and then looked at each other  .... Needles to say we are going to try to eat mare healthy. It should be interesting to see how it goes. Because we are on a short budget the cheapest stuff to buy to eat is bad for us. We will have to be creative.

   Hope you all are ok. I bet the kitchen is looking good. I Love y'all and miss ya too.
  Elder Rogers